Help with my diet

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ygalvan13
ygalvan13 Posts: 2 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Hello everyone! I’m new to counting calories and trying to be in a calorie deficit. My question may be dumb but I just wanna make sure I count my calories right. So, is there the same amount of calories in cooked proteins such as fish, chicken, steak and shrimp, that there is in raw proteins? And do I weigh these raw or cooked since they weigh less when they’re cooked? 🤔 more like one hundred and one questions! But I’d appreciate the help from anyone! Thanks

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  • yirara
    yirara Posts: 9,389 Member
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    Always try to weigh raw, because meat and fish lose water when cooking, but how much depends on how you cook. The same for pasta and rice: weigh raw as they absorb various amounts of water. Search for dry/raw database entries.
  • NovusDies
    NovusDies Posts: 8,940 Member
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    ygalvan13 wrote: »
    Hello everyone! I’m new to counting calories and trying to be in a calorie deficit. My question may be dumb but I just wanna make sure I count my calories right. So, is there the same amount of calories in cooked proteins such as fish, chicken, steak and shrimp, that there is in raw proteins? And do I weigh these raw or cooked since they weigh less when they’re cooked? 🤔 more like one hundred and one questions! But I’d appreciate the help from anyone! Thanks

    Not a dumb question at all.

    The answer is, it depends. Very lean proteins will be almost exactly the same in calories between raw and cooked. Their weight will change because of losing moisture content.

    If you have a fatty protein, a duck breast for instance, and you know how to properly render a lot of the fat, the calories will be decreased by 9 calories per gram of rendered fat.

    I always weigh raw though. I know that it will never be that long before I have to guess at a restaurant meal and even if I aim high on my guess I might still be low. ALSO, I do not eat that much fatty meat. If I did, I would change tactics.
  • steveko89
    steveko89 Posts: 2,216 Member
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    There are entries for both raw and cooked proteins, pasta, and other items that will change weight when cooked. Just be sure the diary entry matches how it's weighed (cooked/raw) and if cooked, that the cooking method listed matches the actual cooking method used (don't used a "baked" or "grilled" entry if you've pan-seared in an oil, for instance).

    Sometimes food won't include the most MFP-friendly data and you'll have to make an estimation. Particularly, I've noticed things like rice-a-roni will often list the nutrition facts by weight or volume uncooked which can make it difficult to translate. However, information is typically given for the whole box. In that case you can weigh the entire portion prepared, the portion you eat and figure out the fraction of the total batch. This can be used for homemade recipes as well; use the recipe builder to get calories for the entire batch and determine what fraction of the batch each portion consumed is.
  • ygalvan13
    ygalvan13 Posts: 2 Member
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    Thank you guys for the replies! So I’ll just weigh my proteins raw and make sure I use the proper entry in my diary! You guys were very helpful! ❤️

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